My Lucid journey from PMW to Head of Medical
September 20, 2022 | Careers, Lucid Group, Medical Communications, Medical Writing, healthcare communications
Working in Medical Communications has never been about the nine to five. Fusing science and language in the service of both clients and patients, this is typically a fast paced and demanding industry, but one which offers enviable flexibility, variety and intellectual challenge. Leading agency Lucid Group prides itself on the many growth and development opportunities it offers its people. In this article, Katherine Duxbury, Lucid’s Head of Medical, reflects upon her own bespoke working journey over the past 12 years and explains how creativity, collaboration and a passion for science have led to a rewarding, stimulating and self-curated career.
I started at Lucid as a Principal Medical Writer (PMW) in 2010. I was the company’s first PMW; the creation of this and other new roles at the time signalled to the growing team a chance to step up. And this hasn’t changed: there is always an opportunity here to step up! This is still an energised, forward-thinking team with ambitious plans. Indeed, since 2010, I have delivered a range of roles in a variety of teams that have kept me inspired, challenged and engaged.
I loved being a PMW at Lucid. I was able to develop my craft as a medical writer, fine-tuning my writing for different healthcare professional and patient audiences, across a range of medical and commercial projects. Client and expert partnerships are a priority at Lucid, and I relished the conversations and collaborations with clever, passionate people who also wanted to make a difference. I got to work across different therapy areas, different diseases, different treatments. It was all about the science and the medicine, and about communicating these in the best possible way.
My accumulating breadth of experience resulted in me being asked by clients for strategic advice on individual projects and whole programmes. As a Scientific Director, and later an Executive Scientific Director, I partnered with key stakeholders to create initiatives that were defined steps in long-term strategies to evolve clinical practice. I enjoyed composing and extending the narrative, drawing on the evidence base and aligning it to the clinical need. This bigger-picture approach allowed me to push the team to be bolder and more creative about what we wanted and how we could achieve it.
The conversations with my clients evolved, and I took on the role of Partnership Director. The remit was business development and growth, but I embraced the people angle. I worked with some truly collaborative and inclusive clients who helped me feel part of their teams. At times I was an advisor, a sounding board, a confidant and a coach. I helped join the dots, working and networking across therapy areas and brands, introducing people to new ideas and new collaborators. I got a lot of satisfaction from being able to support these amazing individuals to achieve their professional and personal goals.
Throughout this time, I was contributing to the training and mentoring of new writers. Most writers enjoy this aspect of their role; I think it is because we inherently want to help others. In the early Lucid days, there was much to be done to set up our Medical team. For a year I worked only part-time on client work so I could set up our Lucid Medical recruitment resources and processes, training suite and quality assurance process. I also wrote the original Lucid style manual. Then I was pulled back into client work for a few years, until late 2021, when a new internal position was created. I am now Head of Medical at Lucid, responsible for building our best-in-class Medical Team. We are uniting our writers across account teams to foster a community focused on creating quality content, sharing best practice and supporting each other’s development.
I didn’t plan my Lucid journey – perhaps because I was growing up with the company, perhaps because I was too busy! I wanted to be creative, finding clever solutions to my clients’ and my team’s challenges. I wanted to be partnering closely with these people to really understand their needs and preferences. I wanted to dissect the science and know the data inside out to tell a clear story that resonated. I wanted to change how people thought and acted and felt. So I focused on what I wanted… and the evolution of my role, and the associated promotions, followed naturally. I am fortunate that Lucid made this possible and supported me along the way.
I look at our current cohort of PMWs at Lucid, and think about their journey to this point, and into the future. Medical writing is a great profession to be in. Writers create the content that is the foundation for the multichannel solutions that drive change in our audiences. Some days are long and tricky, but the reward is amazing. I can’t imagine being anywhere else.
This content was provided by Lucid Group Communications Limited
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